Seminary Avenue Paving Project

• Project TypeTransportation
• Project StatusInitial outreach completed; Additional outreach and final design will resume in 2027

Improving Seminary Avenue for all roadway users along with a planned repaving project.

Repaving Seminary Avenue Between Foothill Boulevard and Camden Street

Seminary Avenue from Foothill Boulevard to Camden Street is planned to be repaved in 2028 as part of the City of Oakland's Five-year Paving Plan. This  repaving on Seminary Avenue presents an opportunity for the City of Oakland to integrate cost-effective traffic safety elements, including pedestrian, bicyclist, and transit improvements. 

All OakDOT Paving Projects make important accessibility and safety improvements, including adding high-visibility crosswalks and upgrading curb ramps to meet ADA standards. Additional traffic safety improvements on Seminary Avenue will include: 

• Traffic calming: The project will include elements that slow down vehicles. Possible improvements include speed cushions (which are like speed bumps) and traffic circles.
• Pedestrian safety improvements: To help make pedestrians more visible, the project may include new marked crossings and flashing lights.
• Transit improvements: Three AC Transit lines use Seminary Avenue (45, 617, 650). OakDOT staff will work with AC Transit to optimize the placement of bus stops for transit reliability and safety.

History

The Seminary Avenue Paving Project originally spanned a longer portion of Seminary Avenue from Foothill Boulevard to Sunnymere Boulevard. In 2023, staff conducted outreach along the entire corridor. This outreach showed that for the upper portion of Seminary (north of Camden), the community wanted the project to include an off-street walking and biking path. Including this path was beyond the scope of a Paving Project, so this stretch became its own major capital project that was called LAMMPS 3, building off the Laurel Access to Mills, Maxwell Park, and Seminary (LAMMPS) Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects along MacArthur Boulevard. The portion of Seminary Avenue from Camden Street to Foothill Boulevard remained a Paving Project that would be delivered as part of the City's Five-year Paving Plan.

Outreach

OakDOT staff conducted in-person and virtual outreach in 2023 and 2024 to learn what residents, business owners, and other stakeholders wanted to see improved on Seminary Avenue from Foothill Boulevard to Sunnymere Avenue.

Spring 2023 - Project Kick-off

• Postcards were mailed to all addresses on the project corridor and within 1/4 mile of the corridor
• Staff visited businesses along the corridor
• Staff held meeting with Northeastern University
• Met with Principal of Burckhalter Elementary School
• Met with AC Transit
• Presented at the September 21, 2023 Meeting of the Oakland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC)
• Staff also attended local neighborhood meetings to share information about the project:

• May 4, 2023: Mills Garden Neighborhood Meeting (virtual)
• May 24, 2023: Millsmont, Evergreen, Millsbrae Neighborhood Council Meeting (virtual)

• Staff sent regular updates to the project email list

Summer 2023 - Bike Survey
the project team sent out a widely distributed survey (now closed) about what sort of bike connection to build between Camden Avenue and Sunnymere Boulevard. Survey results showed that 85% of residents in the surrounding area favored a Class 1 off-street walking and biking path, as opposed to a protected on-street bike lane.

2024 - Outreach to Share News About LAMMPS 3 Becoming a Separate Project

• Thursday, April 25, 2024: Mills Garden Neighborhood Meeting, 6:00pm-7:30pm, virtual
• Wednesday, March 27, 2024: 29X Millsmont Neighborhood Council Meeting, 6:30pm-8:00pm, virtual
• Wednesday, March 13, 2024: 28X Maxwell Park Neighborhood Council Meeting, 7:00pm-8:30pm, virtual
• Thurs, March 7, 2024: Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission - Infrastructure Committee, 3:30pm-5:00pm, 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, 4th Floor

Seminary Avenue is being paved as part of the City of Oakland's 2022 Five-Year Paving Plan, a more than $300M plan to repair Oakland’s streets. This plan is funded primarily by Measure U, Oakland’s 2022 Infrastructure Bond, which requires the City to implement safety improvements with repaving where feasible. For more information, visit our Paving page.

Visit the Complete Streets Paving Program webpage to learn about other projects our team is working on.